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• Scrambled
  

  New plans for detaining suspects have been rushed out. Why the hurry?

  "A MORE comprehensively consensual approach than we have ever taken before" was promised six months ago, when the government announced its fifth counter-terrorism bill in eight years. Previous bills had been piloted through Parliament at top speed, dividing MPs and in some cases leading to legislation that breached human-rights laws. This time a soothing consultation period and cross-party co-operation would prevent squabbling and mistakes, ministers pledged.

  The consensus approach now seems to be on the rocks. On December 6th the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, called an emergency press conference to announce plans to hold suspected terrorists for longer before charging them, a power long coveted by the government and opposed by other parties. Opposition MPs, who say they were shown the detailed plans no earlier than journalists were, accused the government of "pig-headed stubbornness". On the contrary, Ms Smith retorted, it is they who have refused to compromise. ...

• Stories and storytellers
  

  Examining the Bible, and its followers

  HOW do you begin describing the "life" of a document which probably had dozens of human authors and redactors, and whose highly diverse component parts were written down over a period of more than 1,000 years? Throw in the notion that the book's declared purpose is to describe a far longer process--the entire history of God's relationship with man and creation. Finally add in the fact that over the past 2,000 years, the text has been endlessly reread in accordance with human society's ever-changing needs, hopes and fears.

  Even for Karen Armstrong, who is a skilled presenter of arcane material, the challenge is daunting. For any given part of the Bible, there are at least three different strands which might be drawn out: the narrative itself, and its ostensible historical setting; the period (often hundreds of years later) when the story was put in writing; and the various ideological uses which the narrative has served. ...

• The discovery of tolerance
  

  It took time for Europeans to grasp the concept of religious tolerance

  A TYPICAL Protestant view of European religious history might go like this. In medieval times, the Roman Catholic church grew increasingly corrupt and impervious to criticism. Then came the Reformation, with its new breath of freedom and tolerance. After a brief fightback that culminated in the ghastly Thirty Years War in 1618-48, Europe moved smoothly towards the Enlightenment and today's ideal of secular tolerance. It was all quite unlike, for example, Islam and the horrors of the Ottoman empire. ...

• Looking back in anger
  

  A new memoir reveals more about America's former ambassador to the United Nations than about the work he did there

  SURELY even John Bolton cannot be quite as curmudgeonly as this? In a memoir devoted mainly to his nearly six years of government service under President George Bush, America's former ambassador to the United Nations has a bad word for almost everyone who dared stand up to him. This is odd. One of his attractions has always been his willingness to argue it out with his opponents: when other neocons went missing in action, he defended the cause. Yet in this book, this undeniably talented man of principle often comes across as a domineering bully. ...

• English delight
  

  Noel Coward liked high camp more than highbrow, as his letters show

  THE most successful dramatist of the mid-20th-century was the son of a failed piano salesman. Noel Coward dominated the stage on both sides of the Atlantic, having become a star virtually overnight at the age of 24 when he wrote, directed and starred in "The Vortex", a play about drug abuse among the upper classes. Over the following quarter-century he became known as the most versatile (and best paid) author of his time.

  Coward turned out plays, lyrics and music in volume. Not all were good, and not all were successful, but many were both. The titles alone constitute a kind of instant history of British drama from the 1930s and 1940s: plays, such as "Hay Fever", "Blithe Spirit" and "Present Laughter", and films like "In Which We Serve" and "Brief Encounter". "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", one of his songs, is still part of Britain's cultural subconscious. ...

• Living through the terror
  

  A memoir of surviving the Khmer Rouge

  THREE decades have passed since the events being investigated, but early this month Cambodia's United Nations-backed war-crimes tribunal made its first decision. It refused to grant bail to the first suspect charged. He is known as Duch and ran the infamous Tuol Sleng torture centre in Phnom Penh during the nightmare of Khmer Rouge rule from April 1975 to January 1979. Among those indicted so far, Duch, at just 67, is a juvenile. Khieu Samphan, the Khmers Rouges' former president, is 73 and suffered a stroke last month. Ieng Sary, their foreign minister, is 82. His brother-in-law, Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, died in 1998, a free man. ...

• On Iran and nuclear weapons, nanotechnology, the Mariel boatlift, immigration, free speech
  

  SIR - I read your leader on America's National Intelligence Estimate report about Iran halting its nuclear-weapons programme ("Pressure works ('high confidence')", December 8th). The findings of 16 intelligence agencies cannot be ignored. However, it is difficult to treat their conclusions with full confidence given the failings of these same agencies preceding the invasion of Iraq.

  A more reliable source of intelligence would surely be the International Atomic Energy Agency, the only international authority qualified to study Iran's nuclear dossier. The IAEA was accurate in its assessment of Iraq's weapons capacity in 2003; it is continuing to conduct exhaustive inspections on all of Iran's nuclear-enrichment sites. Despite nearly 3,000 hours of inspections, it has found no evidence, past or present, that Iran diverted its nuclear programme to military purposes. ...

• Spot the president
  

  Vladimir Putin's bid to remain in power is bad for Russia, for democracy and for the world

  IT HAS long been obvious that Vladimir Putin is determined to stay in control when his second term as president of Russia expires next year. The only question was just how the country's ruler proposed to skate round the constitutional limit of two consecutive four-year terms in office.

  The simplest approach would have been to change the constitution. But even to Mr Putin that must have seemed too bare-faced. Instead he has played a shabby three-card trick on Russia's voters. The first card was to put himself at the head of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, before the shamelessly manipulated parliamentary election on December 2nd. The two-thirds majority that United Russia then took in the Duma could thus be interpreted as a personal mandate. Next came the announcement on December 10th that he favoured Dmitry Medvedev, his protege, legal adviser and first deputy prime minister, as United Russia's candidate in the presidential election on March 2nd 2008. Judging by the conduct of all recent elections in Russia, Mr Medvedev will be a shoo-in. The third card was played a day later, when Mr Medvedev shyly let it be known that, when he duly becomes president, he wants Mr Putin himself to serve as his prime minister. ...

• Must they be wars without end?
  

  No, as recent successes show. But "winning" will take many years, and cannot be achieved by force alone

  IF YOU rub your eyes, take a deep breath and look with an open mind at the numbers, the conclusion is unmistakable: things are going a lot better in Iraq. From Afghanistan, too, comes the occasional report of a significant success. This week, for example, American and British soldiers helped Afghan government troops wrest the symbolically important town of Musa Qala back from the Taliban. Is it possible that after four and six years respectively, the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are at last beginning to come good?

  Our reports this week from the front-lines of both wars (see article and article) suggest that the answer to that question should be a guarded yes. In Iraq General David Petraeus's "surge" and a Sunni backlash against al-Qaeda have sharply reduced the killing. It is true that more than 20 civilians are still killed on an average day, but it was not uncommon a year ago to find as many as 100 corpses at dawn. In Afghanistan the yes is more tentative. Violence is spreading and suicide-bombings, less frequent now in Iraq, are taking a rising toll. But as the winter snow begins to fall, American and NATO forces have reached the end of the fighting